Israel warns lebanon of 'disastrous repercussions' as week's death toll nears 300

Israel Issues Warning to Lebanon as Death Toll from Conflict Nears 300

Escalation of Conflict and Regional Impact

By Maya Gebeily, Laila Bassam and Maayan Lubell

Intensified Air Strikes and Military Operations

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM, March 7 (Reuters) - Israel warned Lebanon of a "disastrous" fallout if it did not rein in Iran-backed Hezbollah on Saturday, as it pounded the group's strongholds around the country with air strikes and mounted a deadly airborne raid in the east. 

Lebanon was dragged into the wider Middle East war on Monday when Hezbollah fired at Israel, which responded with a new military campaign that has killed nearly 300 people and forced hundreds of thousands of Lebanese from their homes.

In the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of Hezbollah, buildings lay in mounds of smoking rubble and twisted metal, Reuters footage showed.

Further east, in the town of Nabi Chit, a heavy Israeli bombardment after a rare Israeli airborne raid had punched craters into the ground, burying cars in mountains of dirt and launching one vehicle onto the roof of a two-storey building. 

In Israel, air raid sirens warning of incoming rockets and drones, sent people fleeing to their shelters.

Rare Airborne Raid Kills Dozens

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a televised statement, said that it was up to the Lebanese government to enforce the 2024 agreement to disarm Hezbollah.

"Your responsibility is to disarm Hezbollah. If you do not do this, Hezbollah's aggression will result in disastrous repercussions for Lebanon. It is time for you to take your destiny in to your own hands. We will do all that is necessary to defend our communities and citizens," Netanyahu said.

Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a separate statement that the Lebanese government and all of Lebanon would "pay a heavy price" if Hezbollah is not disarmed. Israel had no territorial claims against Lebanon but would not allow cross-border fire, Katz said.

Lebanon's government instructed the army last year to establish a state monopoly on arms. Troops had confiscated Hezbollah's weapons in parts of the south but senior Lebanese officials and security sources said pursuing the plan could cause internal tensions as the group had refused to give up its arsenals in full. 

An Israeli military official told Reuters Israeli military operations were now acting "to remove the threat from Lebanon." 

Overnight, Israeli helicopters dropped troops near Nabi Chit in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley.

Israel's military said the troops staged the operation to seek the remains of Ron Arad, an Israeli airforce navigator missing in Lebanon since 1986 but no findings related to him were recovered.

Hezbollah said overnight it had fired on Israeli troops dropped near Nabi Chit by four helicopters, and that the troops had withdrawn. The Israeli military said none of its forces were injured. 

Lebanon's Health Ministry said 41 people had been killed in the last 24 hours in Israeli attacks in the Nabi Chit area. The Lebanese army said three of its personnel were among the dead. 

Israeli strikes have killed 294 people and wounded more than 1,000 across Lebanon since Monday, the health ministry there said.

Diplomatic Fallout and Humanitarian Crisis

Iranian Diplomats Leave Beirut

Shawki al-Masri, who lives in a town adjacent to Nabi Chit, described the overnight bombing in the area as "a night of hell".

"We heard the helicopters over our house all night - they were so low we thought they would land on us," he told Reuters. 

Mass Displacement and Evacuation Orders

Orders to evacuate have displaced around 300,000 people, only a third of whom are now living in government shelters. A senior United Nations official described the displacement as "unprecedented" in comments to Reuters on Friday. 

Israel's military has issued orders for people living in a swathe of southern Lebanon, several towns in the east and the entirety of Beirut's southern suburbs to leave their homes. This amounts to around 8% of Lebanese territory. 

Israel's military this week warned representatives of the Iranian government "still in Lebanon to leave immediately before they are targeted."

Over 150 Iranian nationals, including diplomats and their families, left Lebanon on Saturday, a senior Lebanese security source told Reuters, adding that 20 left the previous day. 

The Iranian embassy in Lebanon citing safety concerns, said that the families of the Iranian embassy staff, along with teachers and students of the Iranian school and a group of Iranians living in Lebanon, has left Beirut temporarily.

Warnings and International Response

Hezbollah has warned Israeli citizens living in communities near the border to flee their homes, but Israel has said there will be no evacuations. Many northern Israeli communities were evacuated during crossborder bombardment in 2023-24. 

The United Nations warned on Saturday that the conflict was set to get "even worse," and that talks between Israel and Lebanon "must be pursued with urgency" to end hostilities.

(Reporting by Maya Gebeily, Laila Bassam, Maayan Lubell and Alexander Cornwell. Additional writing by Angus McDowall. Editing by Mark Potter, Jan Harvey and Alistair Bell)